Gannett–Gulf
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Colorado, and Wyoming, and prepared reports and maps during winter offi ce seasons in Washington, D.C. In 1879, when the federally sponsored scientifi c ex- peditions directed by Hayden, Clarence King, and John Wesley Powell were folded into the newly formed U.S. G Geological Survey (USGS), the federal government was preparing to conduct its decennial census of population. Gannett, Henry. Henry Gannett was an American At the request of the superintendent of the census, Fran- geographer who is celebrated primarily for establishing cis Amasa Walker, Gannett joined the tenth U.S. census new institutions within the federal government to col- (1880) in the newly created position of geographer. As lect and present information depicting aspects of the na- the census’s fi rst geographer, he established geographic tion’s physical and human geographies. In doing this, he operations to collect information with a door-to-door transformed the existing fragmentary approaches into enumeration of households; to compile that information; a set of interrelated federal institutions that established and then to present it in substantive reports with maps, a framework for the creation of integrated geographic charts, and text. These programs included the creation information systems in the late twentieth century. of enumeration districts that were based on the nation’s Gannett was born in Bath, Maine, 24 August 1846. physical and human geographies for the fi rst time and He proved to be an academically gifted student, and af- dramatically improved the quality of census information. ter graduating from high school in 1864 went to sea un- Gannett served as geographer–assistant director of three til entering Harvard’s Lawrence Scientifi c School in the U.S. censuses and four censuses overseas—Cuba (twice), fall of 1866. After graduation in 1869 he participated in Puerto Rico, and the Philippines (North 1915, 10–11). a summer fi eld class led by J. D. Whitney, William Henry When the tenth U.S. census concluded in 1882, Gan- Brewer, and C. F. Hoffmann, all from the California nett joined the USGS, headed by Powell. As its chief Geological Survey, and Raphael Pumpelly, just returned geographer, Gannett created the nation’s topographic from geological exploration in China. The class ranged mapping program. Once this program was established as from the Lake Superior mining region to Colorado. an ongoing operation, he created several additional pro- Gannett spent the subsequent academic year at Harvard grams that demonstrated the utility of topographically obtaining a mining engineering degree, and upon gradu- mapped geographic information for water issues and ating in spring 1870 took his fi rst professional position for the delineation and inventorying of timber stands. In as assistant to Joseph Winlock at the Harvard College so doing, he geographically defi ned the nation’s initial Observatory. During the next two years, he compiled 110,000 square miles of national forests. maps, prepared calculations to precisely measure the Gannett also chaired the federal government’s Board observatory’s longitude, and photographed the sun’s co- on Geographic Names for twenty years and served on rona during the famous Mediterranean eclipse in Jerez, numerous interagency commissions to coordinate fed- Spain. eral mapping and other scientifi c programs. In 1908–9, In the spring of 1872 Gannett joined the U.S. Geo- he directed the research program of President Theodore logical and Geographical Survey of the Territories, led Roosevelt’s National Conservation Commission, which by F. V. Hayden, as its fi rst astronomer-topographer- inventoried and projected future demand for the na- geographer. He introduced scientifi c topographic map- tion’s natural resources for the fi rst time. ping to its existing geological and biological research During his long and productive career, Gannett devel- programs. During seven years with the Hayden survey, oped major new institutions not only within the federal Gannett led topographic mapping parties during sum- government but in the private realm as well. He worked mer fi eld seasons in the Yellowstone National Park area, with others to found and manage the National Geo- 444 General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans graphic Society, Association of American Geographers, clude shading between selected isobaths to indicate Cosmos Club, and Geological Society of Washington. increasing depth. This type of thematic map became He served as secretary of the 1904 Eighth International widespread only after the mid-nineteenth century Geographical Congress (IGC), the fi rst to be conducted due to technical, scientifi c, and economic factors: po- in the United States. In conjunction with the IGC, he sitioning at sea, equipment, and methods for sounding formulated the standards that guided preparation of the all improved; marine sciences developed; and greater International Map of the World (IMW) at the scale of knowledge of seabed relief was needed to lay submarine 1:1,000,000. During his career, he published two hun- cables. dred scientifi c and popular articles on human geogra- Oceanographic expeditions continued to improve phy, cartography, and process geomorphology topics; this knowledge during the last quarter of the nineteenth edited journals; published academic textbooks; and century. But simultaneously, nomenclature (the choice served on a wide range of committees outside the federal of names given to specifi c submerged features of relief) government. and terminology (terms describing forms of underwater Many of Gannett’s programs continued remarkably relief) became anarchic. The Seventh International Geo- intact up until the revolutionary transformation that graphical Congress in Berlin (1899) addressed this is- resulted from the introduction of electronic computing sue (Carpine-Lancre 2005), and it adopted a resolution at the close of the twentieth century. Elected a fellow “nominat[ing] an international committee on the no- of most of the major scientifi c organizations of his day, menclature of sub-oceanic relief, charged with instigat- Gannett was additionally honored by foreign societies ing the preparation and publication of a bathymetrical and governments; by Bowdoin College with an honor- map of the oceans before the time of the meeting of the ary doctorate; and most fi tting of all perhaps, by the next Congress” (International Geographical Congress naming of a physical feature for him. When the crest of 1901, 1:314). Wyoming’s Wind River Range was measured to produce The Commission on Sub-Oceanic Nomenclature, its fi rst topographic map sheets in 1906, the highest composed of nine oceanographers and geographers, point, still unnamed, was designated Gannett Peak. convened in Wiesbaden 15–16 April 1903, with Prince When Gannett died 5 November 1914, Washington, Albert I of Monaco as chair. For the design of the map D.C., mourned the passing of this unassuming but re- they adopted most of the proposals submitted by French markably productive individual with a memorial service professor Julien Thoulet: sixteen sheets on the Merca- at the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Memo- tor’s projection between 72°N and 72°S on the scale rial Hall. Gannett was described then as the father of of 1:10,000,000; four sheets for each polar cap on the American mapmaking. Although a defi nitive biography gnomonic projection; the use of the meter as the unit of of Gannett has yet to appear, several accounts provide measure; and Greenwich for the prime meridian (Thou- useful introductions to his career (North 1915; Block let 1904). The offer of Prince Albert I of Monaco to as- 1984; Meyer 1999). sume all expenses was gratefully adopted. Donald C. Dahmann The twenty-four map sheets, the title sheet, and the as- sembly diagram for the Carte générale bathymétrique des See also: Board on Geographic Names (U.S.); Geographic Names: océans were printed in Paris in 1905 (fi g. 280). Emman- Applied Toponymy; U.S. Census Bureau; U.S. Geological Survey Bibliography: uel de Margerie sternly criticized the errors and short- Block, Robert H. 1984. “Henry Gannett, 1846–1914.” Geographers comings of this edition, which he felt was too speedily Biobibliographical Studies 8:45–49. produced. Preparation of a new edition was entrusted to Meyer, William B. 1999. “Gannett, Henry.” In American National the newly constituted Prince’s Cabinet scientifi que, and Biography, 24 vols., ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, a second commission that met in Monaco in 1910 de- 8:675–76. New York: Oxford University Press. North, S. N. D. 1915. Henry Gannett: President of the National Geo- cided to add terrestrial contour lines. The second edition graphic Society, 1910–1914. [Washington, D.C.]: National Geo- was printed from 1912 to 1931. This long printing inter- graphic Society. val, partly due to World War I, made the chart obsolete before the last sheets were printed, and neither the Cabi- Gazetteer. See Geographic Names: Gazetteer net scientifi que nor the Musée Océanographique de Mo- naco could afford the technical and fi nancial burden of a new edition insofar as the use of sonic and ultrasonic General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans devices had greatly increased the available data. (GEBCO). The International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB) agreed Bathymetric charts represent submarine relief. They to keep the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans are constructed with isobaths, which are contour lines (GEBCO) up to date. The fi rst step was an international connecting points of equal depth, and they often in- inquiry about the usefulness of the chart and desired Genetics and Cartography 445 improvements. Eight revised sheets were printed from Thoulet, Julien. 1904. “Carte bathymétrique générale de l’Océan.” 1935 to 1942. After World War II, in spite of the help Bulletin du Musée océanographique de Monaco 21:1–27. given by the French Institut géographique national, the IHB was unable to bring the third edition to a successful conclusion (the last three sheets appeared in 1968, and Genetics and Cartography.